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31.08.2022

The Duracell effect of probiotics

Athletes respond to probiotics in much the same way as bunnies do to Duracell batteries. According to a meta-study published in Nutrients, probiotics supplements increase endurance in trained individuals.

Study
Asier Santibanez-Gutierrez, a sports scientist at the University of the Basque Country, traced 12 previously published trials in which trained subjects, who exercised at least 5 times a week, were given probiotic supplements and in which the researchers looked at whether the athletes as a result, had an improved aerobic metabolism. Say: whether their stamina had increased.

A total of 232 subjects participated in the trials.

Each study used a different type of probiotic. Sometimes it concerned a single specific strain, for example, the subjects were given a capsule containing heat-killed Lactobacillus gasseri OLL2809 every day for 3 weeks.

In other studies, subjects were given a combination of probiotic organisms. In a trial, for example, the subjects took a capsule every day for 4 weeks containing Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Lactobacillus fermentum, Lactobacillus plantarum, Bifidobacterium bifidum, Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium lactis and Streptococcus thermophilus.

Santibanez-Gutierrez swept the results of the trials together and re-analyzed them.

Results
Supplementation with probiotics increased the endurance of the athletes.

Click on the figures below for a larger version.

When Santibanez-Gutierrez broke down his data, he saw that probiotic supplementation didn't seem to increase maximum oxygen uptake so much. However, this did happen with the time to fatigue.

This suggests, simply and not quite correctly formulated, that by taking supplements with probiotics, athletes probably won't cycle, swim or run faster, but may be able to cycle, swim or run a little longer.

Lightly dosed probiotic products seemed to work less well than more heavily dosed preparations. A supplement with more than 30 x 10-9 colony forming units seemd more often effective than a lighter dosed supplement - but when Santibanez-Gutierrez did a regression analysis, he found that the effect of dosage was not convincing.

Source:
Nutrients 2022, 14, 622.

More:
Lactobacillus plantarum PS128, a probiotic that speeds up athletes' muscle recovery 01.02.2020
Bifidobacterium breve B3, a probiotic for your muscles 21.01.2020
Human study: TWK10 increases endurance subjects by 58 percent 14.11.2019

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